Remember the “clock kid”? Ahmed Mohamed, the 14-year-old from Irving, Texas became a viral phenomenon last year after he was arrested for bringing in a homemade clock to school to show a teacher, which was mistaken by school officials as a bomb. The outcry that followed shoved the teenager into the media spotlight, making him an inadvertent symbol for religious tolerance and equal protection under the law. As his story spread, his fame brought with it opportunities such as invitations to the White House, offers for multiple scholarships, and support from organizations such as NASA, MIT, and many major tech companies.

One year later, the Mohamed family is filing a lawsuit against the Irving Independent School District (IISD), his former principal, and the City of Irving for violating Ahmed’s constitutional rights.

The lawsuit highlights IISD’s alleged history of racial and religious discrimination, including many such incidents that Mohamed himself experienced involving classmates and teachers while he was a student in the school district. It also details “unconstitutional arrests” by Irving’s Police Department, which, the lawsuit claims, city officials knew about but showed “deliberate indifference” toward. The failure of officials to provide training to officers after such incidents “[led] Irving police officers to arrest Ahmed Mohamed without probable cause.”

Last November, it was reported that Ahmed and his family wrote letters to the City of Irving threatening a civil suit unless they received $15 million in damages and apologies from city and school officials. This suit did not provide specific monetary demands, only requesting a trial by jury.

Ahmed and his family moved to Qatar late last year, accepting a scholarship offer from the Qatar Foundation. However, Ahmed has expressed a desire to return to the U.S., telling The Washington Post that  he gets “bored” in Qatar and would like to study in an American college.

Both IISD and the City of Irving responded to the lawsuit to WFAA on Monday. The school district said it “continues to deny violating the student’s rights,” while the City “is prepared to vigorously defend itself” in the case.

Mariam Jaffery

Mariam was an Executive Assistant at Law Street Media and a native of Northern Virginia. She has a B.A. in International Affairs with a minor in Business Administration from George Washington University. Contact Mariam at mjaffery@lawstreetmedia.com.

The post “Clock Kid” Is Back and Suing His Former City and School District appeared first on Law Street.

Last week the story of 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed and his clock shed a sickening light on the prevalence of Islamophobia and racial profiling in our country. And while so many chose to #StandWithAhmed, others continued the anti-Muslim rhetoric throughout the rest of the week. The biggest culprits of this were perhaps none other than Republican primary frontrunners Dr. Ben Carson and Donald Trump.

During Sunday’s taping of “Meet the Press” Carson was asked if the United States should ever elect a Muslim president. He responded saying, “I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation. I absolutely would not agree with that.”

However when it came to electing a Muslim to Congress, Carson was a little more lenient with his bigotry saying,

Congress is a different story, but it depends on who that Muslim is and what their policies are, just like it depends on what anybody else is. If there’s somebody who is of any faith but they say things and their life has been consistent with things that will elevate this nation and make it possible for everybody to succeed and bring peace and harmony, then I’m with them.

You can watch that portion of the interview in full in the video below:

Carson’s unmistakably offensive remarks were prompted in response to some anti-Muslim comments made by an audience goer during a Trump campaign rally just a few days prior that came under fire. The unidentified audience member stood up during the Rochester, New Hampshire town hall Q&A to tell Trump the following:

We have a problem in this country. It’s called Muslims. You know our current president is one. You know he’s not even an American.

To which Trump jokingly responded, “We need this question. This is the first question.” The man continued saying,

Anyway, we have training camps growing where they want to kill us. That’s my question: When can we get rid of them?

Trump’s only response was,

We’re going to be looking at a lot of different things. You know, a lot of people are saying that and a lot of people are saying that bad things are happening. We’re going to be looking at that and many other things.

But at no point did he correct the audience member’s flawed and offensive comments.

The exchange acted as a throwback to Trump’s 2011 crusade against Obama’s heritage, where he championed the push to see the president’s birth certificate and repeatedly accused him of secretly being a Muslim. Even though the White House eventually released the president’s birth certificate to the public, showing for a fact that Obama was born in the United States, 20 percent of Americans still believe he was born outside the country and 29 percent of Americans say that they think the President is a Muslim, including 43 percent of Republicans.

Trump has never apologized.

In many respects Trump played a critical role in many American’s misperceptions about the President’s identity, so by not correcting a clearly prejudiced supporter’s offensive “Muslim question” he’s only perpetuating the problem.

When Trump was asked why he didn’t make the correction he told the Today Show,

Why should I come to the defense of the president? He’s not going to come to my defense and I think most people agreed with what I did.

The comments from both of these commander-in-chief hopefuls represent an unsettling irony among Republicans who argue in support of religious freedom, while condemning Islam in the same breath. It seems like the debate over religious freedom is fundamentally a fight for Christian freedom and nothing else. If all faiths were truly given the same respect, Islamophobia wouldn’t be running rampant in Republican ranks.

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post This Week in Islamophobia: Carson, Trump, and Ahmed Mohamed appeared first on Law Street.

After police in Irving, Texas arrested 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamad Monday for bringing what they thought was a bomb, but was actually just a clock, to school, internet outrage ensued (justifiably so). Now, I am not generally the biggest fan of widespread social media reactions to very specific events, but this time around there was a genuinely encouraging response–ranging from celebrities to President Obama.

Shortly after the news of Ahmed Mohamad’s arrest, #IStandWithAhmed began trending on Twitter:

370K Tweets have expressed #IStandWithAhmed & currently rising at approx 2K Tweets per minute http://t.co/XTyvFnJlqrpic.twitter.com/r4Tq8z2jAS

— Twitter Data (@TwitterData) September 16, 2015

At its peak, there were around 2,000 tweets per minute supporting Ahmed. And eventually, he got some pretty high-profile attention.

One of the first politicians to address what happened to Ahmed was Hillary Clinton, who encouraged him to follow his passion and warned against prejudiced assumptions.

Assumptions and fear don’t keep us safe—they hold us back. Ahmed, stay curious and keep building. https://t.co/ywrlHUw3g1

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) September 16, 2015

Arguably the most popular tweet came from none other than President Obama himself, in which he invited Ahmed to the White House and encouraged him to keep following his passion.

Cool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House? We should inspire more kids like you to like science. It’s what makes America great. — President Obama (@POTUS) September 16, 2015

Meanwhile, Ahmed Mohamad’s arrest was also trending on Facebook–so much so that the company’s founder made a show of support for the 14-year-old. Mark Zuckerberg criticized the arrest and extended another invitation to Ahmed, this time to Facebook’s headquarters. His post said:

You’ve probably seen the story about Ahmed, the 14 year old student in Texas who built a clock and was arrested when he took it to school.

Having the skill and ambition to build something cool should lead to applause, not arrest. The future belongs to people like Ahmed.

Ahmed, if you ever want to come by Facebook, I’d love to meet you. Keep building.

Twitter later got into the mix, offering Ahmed an internship:

Hi @IStandWithAhmed, we building things at @twitter too. Would you consider interning with us? We’d love it — DM us! #IStandWithAhmed

— Twitter (@twitter) September 16, 2015

Ahmed, who was wearing a NASA shirt on the day he was arrested, got an outpouring of support from several NASA workers.

Bob Ferdowski, a popular NASA engineer, tweeted:

Hey Ahmed, give me a call in a couple years. We could always use smart, curious & creative people. https://t.co/02a4feMrk5 — Bobak Ferdowsi (@tweetsoutloud) September 16, 2015

Mike Seibert, the Flight Director for the Mars Rover, said:

Ahmed, I’d be happy to show you how we drive the Opportunity rover. Come visit us at JPL any time. #IStandWithAhmedhttps://t.co/VtesUugxj3

— Mike Seibert (@mikeseibert) September 16, 2015

Dr. Fred Calef III, the “keeper of the maps” at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) said:

Anytime you wanna see Mars rovers Ahmed, let me know. #IStandWithAhmed

— Imperator MARSiosa (@cirquelar) September 16, 2015

He later tweeted:

It’s not about the shirt, it’s the dreams that shirt represents, the crushing of innocence and intelligence by fear, ignorance & hatred.

— Imperator MARSiosa (@cirquelar) September 16, 2015

When the day was over, Ahmed had received an outpouring of support from all over the internet, but the most sincere seemed to come from the group of NASA engineers at the Jet Propulsion Lab. From Mike Seibert’s series of tweets, to Dr. Calif’s impassioned defense of Ahmed, you can tell their support is truly genuine.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post The Internet Stands with Ahmed appeared first on Law Street.

Ahmed Mohamed is a 14-year-old living in Irving, Texas. His hobby is inventing and creating things–but when he brought in a homemade clock on Monday, he was accused of making a bomb, suspended from school, interrogated by the police, arrested, and taken to a juvenile detention center. America: land of the brave, home of stamping out creativity in young people.

Ahmed’s sister told me to post this. Yes this situation is real for those questioning. pic.twitter.com/Oxd0JxUS6O

— Prajwol/Ru (@OfficalPrajwol) September 16, 2015

Mohamed had created a clock by linking a circuit board and digital display–a pretty straightforwad engineering project. He put it in a pencil case that had a tiger hologram on it and brought it to school to show his teachers. He thought his teachers would be impressed–and they should have been, given that I’m fairly certain most 14-year-olds don’t have the technical wherewithal to make a clock. He showed it to his engineering teacher, who told him it was “nice” but instructed him not to show it to other teachers. But when it started beeping during his English class–as clocks sometimes do–he showed it to his English teacher. She said it looked like a bomb, he argued that it was just, in fact, a clock, and he was sent to the principal’s office. A police officer was waiting for him when he got there, and apparently upon seeing Mohamed stated: “Yup. That’s who I thought it was.” Then, in Mohamed’s own words, he was brought to a room with five officers, and interrogated. They kept insisting that he had made a “movie bomb,” evidently meaning one that could be transported in a suitcase. Then, he was brought to a juvenile detention facility where he was fingerprinted and mug shots were taken. At no point during that process was this 14-year-old allowed to contact his parents. Ahmed’s explanation of events is below:

While the charges have now been dropped, the fact that the situation progressed as far as it did is reprehensible, and Mohamed’s school sent out a letter after the fact: 

Think the egregious behavior ended w/teacher/police? Think again. Parents were sent this letter: #IStandWithAhmed pic.twitter.com/OfOL8vDpWD — Imraan Siddiqi (@imraansiddiqi) September 16, 2015

My favorite sentence is this one: “I recommend using this opportunity to talk with your child about the Student Code of Conduct and specifically not bringing items to school that are prohibited,” because it puts all the onus on Mohamed, for bringing in a clock that he built. What part of his item was prohibited I have no idea, but I have an inkling it has something to do with his name, his religion, and the color of his skin.

I understand the principle of “rather safe than sorry” but “rather be ridiculously reactionary than sorry” doesn’t have the same ring to it, and that’s almost undoubtedly what happened here. There were so many easy fixes the school and the police could have taken here–including contacting the engineering teacher who saw the project, looking at the clock, or just maybe not rushing to conclusions about a 14-year-old. 

The hashtag #IStandWithAhmed is now trending on Twitter, garnering plenty of support for Mohamed.

That moment when school can’t tell the diff b/w a clock & a bomb but since the kid is brown, they arrest him just in case #IStandWithAhmed

— shannonwoodward (@shannonwoodward) September 16, 2015

White kids walk in public with weapons, brown kids are arrested for building clocks. #IStandWithAhmedpic.twitter.com/AmfwkqtvQ0

— Indian Stats (@Indian_stats) September 16, 2015

 

White kid makes a nuclear reactor? He’s a genius. Brown Muslim kid makes a clock? A terrorist #IStandWithAhmedpic.twitter.com/fEwcq7tUsr

— Farhan Khan Virk (@FarhanKVirk) September 16, 2015

I’m sad for the adults at the Irving Independent School District, who are so inundated by prejudice that they couldn’t work with Mohamed to figure out what he had brought in.  I’m sad for his classmates, who were just taught that it’s ok to rush to assumptions and terrorize a kid. And I’m sad for Ahmed, who was forced to bear the weight of other people’s ignorance this week at 14. No kid should have to deal with that–that’s why #IStandWithAhmed.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

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